1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sealing foil breaker for test cups used in an analyzer for detecting and determining a very small quantity of a physiologically active substance in a sample liquid, especially in an enzyme immunity analysis (EIA).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Enzyme immunity analysis in which an enzyme is used as a sign of a combined product of a reaction of an antigen or an antibody has recently been studied and energetically developed as an immunological method of detecting and determining a very small quantity of a physiologically active substance.
Enzyme immunity analysis includes various methods, such as the sandwich method or competitive method, as disclosed in, for example, "Clinical Chemistry", Vol. 22, No. 8, 1243-1255 (1976). In a regularly used method, a competitive method, a conjugate with which an enzyme is combined as a sign is brought into contact with an antigen or an antibody fixed to an insoluble carrier to generate a reaction of the antigen or antibody and form a complex, and a substrate, which receives an active enzyme and causes an optically detectable change (in, for example, the fluorescent strength) to occur therein, is then brought into contact with this complex to determine an optical change of the substrate and measure the quantity of the antibody or antigen in an object sample liquid.
Since these operations are usually carried out for a plurality of samples, a device having a plurality of cells, such as a multi-titer plate has been provided and used in practice.
The method described above, in which such a multi-titer plate is used, is suitable for conducting measurements on the same inspection item or a certain number of a predetermined kind of inspection items. However, this method requires intensive labor preparations prior to the stage in which the practical measurements are conducted, particularly where the inspection items for each sample are varied when occasion calls.